11 August 2015

Labour Has Always Been The Party I've Felt At Home With And Jeremy Has Brought Me Back Into The Fold.

I've only ever been a member of one political party - Labour.

I really wanted to see Ed Miliband become PM in May and I was gutted for Labour's Nancy Platts in Kemptown.

Yet I had for a number of years drifted away from Labour as they moved further to the right. I did publicly support & vote for Caroline Lucas in May but I could not join the Green party. Something held me back. They didn't feel quite right for me.

Now, I am absolutely delighted to once again be a supporter of the Labour party. Jeremy Corbyn has given me real hope that Labour now have the artillery to win a general election. He has drawn be back into my Labour home. And I look forward to becoming an activist once again within a Labour movement confident of it's socialist roots.

But best of all, Corbyn is outlining clearly how to do it.

After initial short term borrowing, council homes could be big income generators in the medium to long term helping to pay down government debt. Corbyn will free councils to raise funds to build as many homes as their community needs. Private house builders are reluctant to build on brownfield sites because their profit is slightly less. In fact they seem reluctant to build at all when sitting on landbanks is such easy profit. Councils will have no such incentive.

Education is more than just individual advancement. It benefits the whole of society. Corbyn recognises this and why it should be paid for by general (progressive) taxation not by individual loans that are bound to hit the poorest harder.

And austerity rewards the irresponsible lenders by placing all the blame for debt on borrowers driven to desperate measures by out of control inequality. Corbyn will passionately make the case for a true "all in it together" philosophy where lenders do share some of the responsibility.

I could go on, but the point is Corbyn is outlining the case for a strident Labour party. We have tried timid Labour, it has lost 2 elections badly. I want to passionately want Labour to win. Like Blair, Corbyn can make that case, but times have changed since 1997 and it requires a new argument. Corbyn has refreshed Labour and I now desperately want to be on board and help them win elections once again.